trainedobserver
Paranormally Disenchanted
I think it is reasonable to say that any god concept that humanity has ever entertained is false. Why do I think this? One reason is that it is impossible for human beings to know of anything outside of our time/space resource restrictions. The origin of the universe (if there is one) and its end are outside of the tiny bubble of time/space that our species has ever and will ever occupy. People who claim to "know" who created the universe, who claim to have a "relationship" whatever that was, are just whistling in the dark. This is my opinion of course, formed from having spent the majority of my life as a "believer" and then abandoning my faith after I could no longer justify it.
Where is heaven? Heaven, paradise, the abode of the god(s), is part of the human imagination. What science tells us is that we live in a quantum soup from which our central nervous systems construct a 3 dimensional model that allows us to navigate through and survive in the true multi-dimensional reality (which I refer to as "quantum soup" for lack of better term) that surrounds us. I have come to think that this larger domain that is detectable to us only through instrumentation, contains the origin of all that which is referred to as paranormal (that isn't some function of human psychology) and that while our senses and brain/mind only present to us a limited 3-dimensional model of what is happening around us, we actually live within the multi-dimensional quantum reality along with many other things that are out of design specification to detect. The heavens or spirit world of religious/superstitious myth has a corollary in this larger domain. What we think of as "the real world" is actually a 3-D virtual reality model constructed by our individual brain/mind systems which contains information gleaned from the "true" reality of the quantum soup but is in actually composed of "brain/mind" stuff. It is in a word an illusion and is not the real world it represents. (Damn this is strong coffee.)
While some may argue that my admission of a larger invisible domain outside of human perception allows for god, gods, and the plethora of spiritual beings and monsters so many people place their faith in, I would say "no." It only indicates that our stories and myths about that domain are undeniably false since we know our space/time restrictions prevent us from "knowing" enough about it to form reliable models of it. If some higher order being could actually intrude into human reality and talk to us why would we believe anything it said? If it claimed to be the creator and worked a few magic tricks for us should we believe it? I think not. If a shining being appeared before you and overwhelmed your central nervous system with waves of peace and joy and proclaims itself god or your guardian angel or something why should you believe it? This goes double for human beings who claim to be a god or some spiritual channel for gods or aliens.
The con-game of religious relics is as old as dirt. People fall for it in droves every day. If it isn't a nail from the cross it is G-bus in a taco, or a goddess in a water stain. It is all part of the story humanity tells itself in an attempt to find some comfort in a hostile and indifferent universe. We've made up things so we won't have to think about the perils of hairy little animals hurtling trough space on a mud-ball at the mercy of solar-flares, gamma-ray bursts, and space debris that could end our existence without a moments notice. Or so it seems to me. But what do I know? Don't listen to me.
